April 26
1607
Colonists land at Cape Henry, Va., They would found Jamestown the next month.
1865
John Wilkes Booth, Lincoln’s assassin, was surrounded by federal troops in a barn in Virginia. He was shot and killed, either by the soldiers or by his own hand.
1937
The German Luftwaffe (air force) destroyed the Spanish town of Guernica.
1964
Tanganyika and Zanzibar joined to form Tanzania.
1986
The worst nuclear power plant accident in history occurred at Chernobyl, near Kiev, U.S.S.R.
1994
The first multi-racial elections were held in South Africa.
2000
Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed the nation’s first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.
Birthdays
John James Audubon
Pronunciation: [ô´dubon]
1785–1851, American ornithologist, b. Les Cayes, Santo Domingo (now Haiti).
Eugène Delacroix
painter (1798)
Frederick Law Olmsted
landscape architect (1822)
Ma Rainey
blues musician (1886)
I. M. Pei
architect (1917)
Carol Burnett
comedienne (1936)
Channing Tatum
actor, model, dancer (1980)